Kaohsiung: “Mongrel,” an award-winning movie on the life of migrant workers working illegally as caregivers in Taiwan, will start a limited run in the southern city of Kaohsiung on June 27. The first two movie theaters on the screening tour are Vieshow Cinema in the FE21′ Mega shopping mall and in89 Cinema in the Pier-2 Art Center, with subsequent screenings to be announced.

According to Focus Taiwan, the movie earned a Golden Camera Special Mention Award in the category dedicated to first feature films at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Singaporean director Chiang Wei-liang, who co-directed the film with Taiwanese director Yin You-qiao, said it represents the culmination of his 15 years of work in the filmmaking industry.

“This movie is about long-term care and issues in the caregiving industry. It should be an issue that Taiwanese people can see and relate to,” Chiang said. “Therefore, it’s more important to show it in Taiwan than anywhere else in the world.”

The movie centers on Oom, an illegal Thai migrant worker in Taiwan who faces a choice between survival and dignity after his Taiwanese boss puts him in charge of supervising other migrant workers at a nursing home where he works. “It’s not a film that caters to mainstream tastes, and it’s not a successful art film. I did what I could, that’s all,” Chiang said.